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  • Water Challenges in the Emerging Hydrogen Economy

    Global shifts have revitalized the move toward hydrogen as an energy source. However, discussions often center on cost and technical barriers, neglecting critical questions regarding water as a feedstock in hydrogen production.

  • LEAP 2024: Oracle to focus on Saudi Arabia’s AI economy goals

    “Over the last three decades, Oracle has significantly expanded its presence in Saudi Arabia to help the Kingdom emerge as a digital economy leader. Our US $1.5 billion investment in Saudi Arabia will play a vital role in expanding local cloud capacity, which will act as the foundation for local organisations to unlock the full potential of latest digital technologies like Artificial Intelligence”, said Reham AlMusa, vice president – Business Applications, and Saudi Arabia Country Leader, Oracle.

  • Israel’s war against Hamas is hitting its economy even harder than expected

    Israel’s months-long war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip is hurting the country’s economy more than expected, according to new government data, as the military call-up of reservists puts a damper on tourism, spending, and investment. The country’s economy shrunk at an annualized rate of 19.4% in the final quarter of 2023, Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics said Monday. That contraction of gross domestic product in the country’s roughly $500-billion economy was double what analysts had expected, Reuters reports.

  • Saudi Arabia’s AI economy goals key focus for Oracle at LEAP 2024

    Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: Latest cloud innovation that is geared to help Saudi Arabia accelerate its Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered economy will be on display at Oracle’s state of the art exhibit at LEAP 2024. Oracle will this year present a comprehensive portfolio of AI solutions including state of the art cloud applications on a best-in-class AI cloud infrastructure and state-of-the-art generative AI innovations. “Over the last three decades, Oracle has significantly expanded presence in Saudi Arabia to help the Kingdom emerge as a digital economy leader. Our US $1.5 billion investment in Saudi Arabia will play a vital role in expanding local cloud capacity, which will act as the foundation for local organisations to unlock the full potential of latest digital technologies like Artificial Intelligence”, said Reham AlMusa, vice president – Business Applications, and Saudi Arabia Country Leader, Oracle. “AI is seeing incredible adoption in the Kingdom, as businesses look to innovate and grow. PwC estimates that Artificial intelligence is set to contribute $135 billion to the Saudi economy in 2030, making the Kingdom the biggest beneficiary of the technology in the Middle East. Oracle is well positioned to help Saudi organisations leverage this AI opportunity, and LEAP 2024 will be an opportunity for us to demonstrate how our latest AI innovation can help address the most complex business challenges across diverse industries and help drive growth.”

  • IMF Chief: Change in Saudi Arabia is amazing and its economy is more dynamic

    International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said that the change in Saudi Arabia in terms of economic diversification is amazing. “The change in Saudi Arabia is amazing,” she said in an interview with Al-Arabiya Business on the sidelines of the Arab Fiscal Forum held in Dubai. “The Kingdom’s economy has shifted from relying heavily on the oil and gas sectors to being more dynamic in the non-oil sectors. I praise the way the Kingdom is following to achieve its Vision 2030, regarding economic diversification.”

  • Saudi Arabia accelerates digital economy growth through Nvidia partnership

    The Kingdom’s Minister of Communications and Information Technology Abdullah Al-Swaha's meeting with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang aims to support and strengthen the region’s digital economy, particularly in Saudi Arabia, recognized as the largest market for technical innovation in the Middle East and North Africa.

  • Saudi economy on track to surpass Vision 2030 targets: Al-Falih

    The Saudi economy is poised to grow from SAR 2.6 trillion to exceed the digital target of SAR 6.4 trillion by 2030, Minister of Investment Khalid Al-Falih said. During the second edition of the PIF Private Sector Forum held today, Feb. 6, Al-Falih underscored that the private sector's contribution to the economy is expected to reach 65% by 2030, marking a quadruple increase compared to pre-Vision levels. The minister emphasized that the Public Investment Fund (PIF) serves as the engine of growth for the private sector, and each entity in this journey represents a robust company enhancing opportunities in the Saudi economy. The private sector benefited from opportunities exceeding SAR 300 billion through partnerships with the fund and government initiatives, he added.

  • Saudi Arabia’s economy contracts again, dragged by oil cuts

    Saudi Arabia’s fourth-quarter real GDP fell 3.7% year-on-year, according to flash estimates published by the General Authority for Statistics on Wednesday. That’s a smaller drop than the 4.4% year-on-year slide in the third quarter.

    The drop was attributed to a 16.4% decline in oil activities, while non-oil activities and government activities expanded by 4.3% and 3.1%, respectively, year-on-year. For the full year, Saudi Arabia’s economy shrank 0.9%, according to government data.

  • US Extends Lead Over China in Race for World’s Biggest Economy

    US gross domestic product rose 6.3% in nominal terms — that is, unadjusted for inflation — last year, outpacing China’s 4.6% gain. While some of the outperformance reflected America’s elevated price increases, the 2023 outturn underscores a broader point: The US economy is emerging from the pandemic period in a better place than China’s.

    “It is a striking turn of fortunes,” said Eswar Prasad, who once led the International Monetary Fund’s China team and is now at Cornell University. “The strong performance of the US economy, in tandem with all the short-term and long-term headwinds the Chinese economy is facing, renders it a less obvious proposition that China’s GDP will someday overtake that of the US.”

  • Global economy outlook at odds with aggressive rate cut bets – Reuters poll

    Global growth is set to stay resilient this year and only pick up pace a bit in 2025, according to a Reuters poll of economists, a stable outlook at odds with still-relatively aggressive interest rate cut bets in financial markets.
    Growth among leading economies is not forecast to be consistent, with relative strength in the United States and India, and sluggishness expected from the euro zone, as well as No. 2 economy China.